Pages

Thursday, 3 May 2012

United Bakes of America - A Monthly Blogging Challenge!

So I have some very exciting news to announce today!

Two years ago I received this book for my birthday. It is an amazing recipe book filled with over one hundred traditional stateside recipes. They are categorised by state and each recipe is accompanied by a little story about how that particular cake became the state cake. I have been wanting to try and make a feature of baking a recipe out of this book each month for a while now...and then I thought wouldn't it be so fun if you all baked along with me?

So the 'United Bakes of America' challenge is born! Each month I will bake a recipe inspired by a state in America from this book and feature all of your American bakes too!

I know you won't all have this recipe book, so there are several ways you can enter:

If you bake a recipe from any American recipe book - think Baked, Martha,Magnolia, Baked in America or whatever else you happen to have...I know you all have extensive recipe book collections! It could even be the perfect excuse to splash out on the new Matha's American Food - I know I'm going to!

If you bake a recipe inspired by a state favourite - think Tennessee Stack Cake, Bundt cake for Maine, Mississippi Mud Pie, or Key Lime Pie for Florida.

So if you want to join and bake along with us so at the end of the month we have a huge round up of American treats, then here are the rules:

1. Post your recipe on your blog stating that it is for the 'United Bakes of America challenge', including a link to Cupcake Crazy Gem.

2. Add the logo (found at the top) to your post and 'United Bakes of America' as a label or in the title.

3. Only one entry per person and all entries must be sweet to qualify as a bake.

4. Email your entry to cupcakecrazygem@gmail.com by the 30th of each month and include:

The name of your blog

Your blog post URL

Photo of the recipe

Recipe title

It's as simple as that! I look forward to seeing what you all come up with!

If you want to bake with American ingredients but aren't sure where to get them then my favourite website to buy supplies from is American Sweets. If you're lucky enough to live in the great city that is London then Partridge's and Outsider Tart have a good range of American groceries. Nationwide, Asda also now sells Marshmallow Fluff, Reese's peanut butter cups and Hershey's Cookies n Creme kisses.

Happy Baking!

This month I will be baking Key Lime Pie (for Florida). If you would also like to bake a Key Lime inspired treat or a treat inspired by the state of Florida then that would be awesome, otherwise it's free reign for you to bake anything at all American!

I drooled over that book when you lent it to me and never made any of the lovely recipes. I still have a large tub of fluff and so may just have to join in. Is there a prize? Why don't you set up Mr Linky?

You will definitely have to join in, fluff is the best! you should really make the s'mores bars I made, you will not be disappointed! There are no prizes, just the fun of taking part! and Mr Linky's are boring because I want to be able to comment on everyones submissions and show them off!

What a great idea! I just got the Outsider Tart book for my birthday on Sunday - and it's signed as well, as my boyfriend's mum knows them! Not that I needed an excuse to bake from it...So can we enter anything American every month, or are you choosing a particular state each month as the theme?

Oh I absolutely love the Outsider Tart book, it's one of my faves! that's good timing isn't it? lucky you having it signed! You can enter anything American each month...I will be baking a particular dish from a particular state and if you want to do the same you can or anything American is fine - maybe I should announce what I'm going to make actually. That's a good idea! haha :)

Brilliant idea Gem!! We both share a love for American goodies (you more than me for sure!) so yes definitely count me in!! Only problem I will have is choosing which one to enter as I probably bake at least 1 American bake each month ;) Plus I finally got to an Asda and bought marshmallow fluff and Hershey's cookies n' creme.

Oh that is awesome news! that is a good stash of goodies to have! I know, I did think long and hard about restricting it to one entry each but some American baking bloggers post recipes daily and obviously all their recipes would qualify for the challenge so I thought getting 20 or more entries from some bloggers each month could start to get out of control! haha..and I'd say you're catching up on your love for American goodies and probably not too far behind me!

ooooh, i've never had an comment in english yet. Thanks a lot. :) I would love to have you as a follower and it's great to hear you had german in school! :-) I also love America, this year in oktober we will visit America the first time and we're very excisting. Last year we visit London. Oh your backing and crafting magazines are amazing, we unfortunately don't have such great magazines..:-( perhaps you like to stay in contact, i would be very happy! :-)

This sounds like a fab challenge! I'll have to get my thinking cap on and see if I can come up with anything so I can join in! I hope it goes well , I've been thinking about setting up a monthly challenge too but haven't got past the thinking stage yet!! :-)

Hi Sweetie, Thanks for stopping by my space & the awesome blog add! It's really an amazing blog full with coconut recipes! Thank you so much dear for the info; I really do appreciate it! Wow! What an awesome challenge & would love to join but I don't have many American cookbook, actually only 1. Unfortunately most of my cookbooks are in French! I'll check online at Amazon & see what I can come out with. Maybe I'll get this copy of United cakes of American!:)

Yes you should it's a really great book! It doesn't have to come from a recipe book though, you could also bake a recipe from a blog or somewhere else online :) It would be great to have you joining in with us! Glad you enjoyed the blog full of coconut recipes, I knew you would!

Haha that sounds awesome, I can't wait to see what you come up with when you're back in The States, I will be super jel of your amazing access to such yummy baking ingredients! When do you go back home? Hope your exam went well today :)

This is an awesome idea! Wish I'd known about this before I posted about my Reese's cups cake, although I only stuck them on the outside so maybe it's a bit tenous?! It was inspired by them, though! Lovely blog, whereabouts in North Wales are you? I'm from there too!

Oh no! You can still submit it if you want, just revise your post to include the logo and info if you only just posted it now? Reese's cups whether decoration or not definitely count!! I'm in Penmaenmawr, just outside Bangor - where are you from?

Awesome - I might revise My Oreo one from yesterday instead actually, since Oreos were a key part of the cupcakes, so I would feel less of a fraud! Ah lovely, you're in proper Wales then - I'm from the North East side near the border. Living in Cheshire at the moment though, so I went to the Chester Clandestine Cake Club. You will love it, make sure you fast for a good few hours beforehand!